Another week went by, and I began to become used to the ground beneath my feet whereas before I had only been accustomed to clouds. It was imperfect and wild, like mortals themselves. The grass was beautiful to look at, but when I took off my shoes, it made my feet itch. The trees were skinny little things, bent in ugly fashions, but when the wind rustled their leaves, I felt like there was no where I’d rather be. 

The earth was a place where lovely music wrapped me in a sweet harmony.

Then the day came when the Prince of Ga arrived riding in a horse-drawn carriage.

A big fuss was made about it, and everyone came to see the prince and his small procession of guards he’d brought with him, including me and Heidi who watched from the sidelines. They waved his standard in the breeze in their rich, embroidered outfits. Unlike humans, there were no protective jewels in the foreheads of the people of Ga. They were simply born able to breathe the toxic air.

After a show of flag-twirling and trumpet blaring, the prince stepped out of the carriage and went to greet Heidi. Perhaps they knew each other more than Heidi had let on before.

The prince looked to be about fifteen-years-old. He was also bird-like, as all the people of Ga were. The people of Ga were as tall as humans, and stood upright like them, but they were covered in feathers and had beaks, beady eyes, and clawed toes. Additionally, they had wings, and attached to those wings were their humanesque hands, also clawed. Most of the people in Ga came in solid-colored feathers: pink, blue, yellow… but the prince came in a multitude of colors; blue, purple, red, orange, gold, and green.

Heidi embraced her young friend while I watched them from a distance. It took me a moment, but I realized I had actually watched the prince many times from above.

I loved him from afar, similarly and yet differently from the way I loved Heidi.

Katharos, the prince, was an avid worshipper of me, and based on this fact alone, I loved him and looked after him often. Not many people worshipped me anymore because justice did not behave in the way they wanted it to. But Katharos did worship me, because he understood that justice should be impartial. I was always afraid for him, and worried I would someday have to sign his death warrant as God of Justice, and my brother would gleefully get to snuff out a life I loved. 

From above, Katharos always seemed like he would never be long for the world. His parents had died when he was young and the throne was foisted upon him. To make matters worse, he was born sickly and lacked the energy to defend his kingdom. Worse than that, he always did the right thing. All of his councilors wanted him to make trouble where there was none, start fights, get into wars, raise taxes, but Katharos would have none of it. I feared that his councilors might eventually get rid of him. 

There was a man looming behind Katharos, who I had also seen from The Above--his body-guard--who was ten-feet-tall like I was and named. I knew little of Ashser. He wore nothing but a loin cloth, and had the features of a bat, particularly his ears. His eyes were narrow and as gold as the crown upon Katharos’ head. Like his royal charge, he had clawed feet and hands, and his skin was pitch black, but he was otherwise humanoid.

I watched Heidi and Katharos smile and laugh for a bit, and I was happy just to watch as I was a quiet sort. Eventually, Heidi grabbed Katharos’ hand and dragged him over to me, and Katharos was speechless. “Heidi, do you know who this is…?”

“Yes, his name is Joshua, and I--”

“No,” Katharos interjected. “This is the God of Justice!”